News Roundup: Hotfixes (May 2-4), Hippogryphs on the Ground, and More

Just a few new Blizzard posts today in the midst of all of the exciting 4.2 PTR goodies! Blizzard has snuck in a handful of Cataclysm hotfixes, the iDevice / Android Mobile Armory app now features (for a limited time) free guild chat for all realms, and Blizzard posters tackle player concerns such as allowing all flying mounts to function as ground mounts in "no-fly" zones and more! Check out the full Blizzard posts after the break!

Blizzard Entertainment

May 3-4

General

An issue was preventing some players from properly mailing account bound items to other characters on the same realm and Battle.net account. If you are still experiencing this issue, we recommend you log into both characters before sending the mail. The characters don’t need to be online at the same time for this to work.

Children's Week quests should no longer be unavailable to players who recently transferred factions.

Flying wisp form and flying mounts, both living and dead, can enter bodies of water smoothly.

Classes

Spells or talents which provide pushback protection should now be functioning correctly (i.e. or ). This time we mean it.

Allowing more flying mounts to be used as ground mounts in no-fly areas is definitely something we're looking into. Right now, we sort of place flying mounts into three categories: Those that already make sense running around on the ground, and look good doing it. Those that would require a few more animations before they'd really look and feel appropriate. And those that would still seem out of place no matter what kind of visual tweaks we'd make to their ground run/walk.

Hippogryphs are a good example of a flying mount that we feel could work in no-fly areas with some additional animations. It's something we'd like to do in the future, definitely, but we wouldn't be able to guarantee any sort of timeframe when a change like that could occur.

It's purple. Yes, the one we originally previewed is a different color and we may make use of it one day. We try to get information to you as quickly as possible via content previews. The major issue we run into though, is that we're pushing for image assets and functionality information as soon as they come off the presses from our developers. So the quicker we are about getting you information, the more likely it is that something will change between the time the preview is posted, and the time the feature/content goes live. This is one of those cases and we're trying to work on ways to minimize them as much as possible.

Free Blizzard Remote Guild Chat

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been giving World of Warcraft® players a chance to gab with their guildies on their mobile phones during a free preview of Remote Guild Chat, a new feature being added to the subscription-based World of Warcraft Remote service. Now we’re giving players a chance to get in the goblin spirit and strike it rich remotely -- for no money down! -- with seven days of free access to the Remote Auction House.

Between now and May 10, players will be able to access both features of World of Warcraft Remote -- Remote Guild Chat and the Remote Auction House -- for free. The Remote Auction House allows players to place bids, post auctions, collect their hard-earned gold, and more from a supported mobile device or the World of Warcraft website.

To try either of these features out, simply download the free World of Warcraft Remote app for Android™ or the free World of Warcraft Mobile Armory app for iPhone® or iPod touch®.

Beginning May 11, players will need a subscription to World of Warcraft Remote to access both of these features. If you already have World of Warcraft Remote, we’ve got you covered -- current subscribers who signed up for the service before May 4 will automatically receive an additional seven days of World of Warcraft Remote subscription time for free.

Time is money, friends -- so start buying, selling, and chatting up a Maelstrom!

World of Warcraft Players are Heroes--and Molten Front Should Make Them Feel Like Ones

Well I didn't get the Blue post I hoped for, perhaps this is a question they don't want to have to answer and don't want players thinking about, because if we begin to feel worthless in the gaming environment it could impact more than a few peoples desire to continue to play.

Either way, I did enjoy getting a few fresh perspectives on it and I hope that anyone that looked this thread over took some time to think on Player's roles within the game.

Not at all.

It's a big question, and one that's not easy to answer. I guess I should start by saying that the players of World of Warcraft are heroes. True heroes; the other posters in this thread have already brought up some of the truly amazing things that player characters have accomplished. It's true that sometimes a notable lore characters will share the lime light, but at least partially, the intent is to point out not that the players are beneath those characters or that those characters deserve the credit, but rather, that players are more than fit to fight alongside them.

There are those who have pointed out that gameplay supersedes lore, and to an extent that's true. It doesn't make sense, for example, for guards to be as powerful as player characters; but they aren't entirely there for lore purposes. Their purpose is to act as a deterrent, and they couldn't do that if they were of an 'appropriate' level.

Still, the role that the heroes of Azeroth play is incredibly important, and we're always seeking a better balance between the starker demands of gameplay, and the rich and exciting stories that can be told via the same medium. The upcoming Thrall quest line is one example, and the new legendary weapon quest line is another. The new Regrowth/Molten Front quest hub will allow players to shape how a piece of the game world changes for themselves. We're excited about the future, and we can't wait to see what you guys think.

UA Dispel Finally Fixed

That's a bit of an oversimplification of the issue here. When I say "a bit," I'm oversimplifying how drastically off the mark your comment is.

We pushed a hotfix for the pushback issue on April 27. Around the same time a change was checked in to tone down the dispel damage of Unstable Affliction. We understand some of you disagree, but the numbers were too high. Affliction warlocks are faring quite well right now, particularly in Arenas where this change really matters.

The reduction to the UA dispel damage was made on May 2, but we also found out that a programming issue prevented the original hotfix to the pushback bug from working correctly.

Performing server-side fixes to the game is tricky. Sometimes a bit of trial and error is involved to ensure the code changes we're making don't have major adverse affects on gameplay. We've been doing extensive testing on ways to fix the pushback issue for the last few days now. It looks like a client-side patch will be required. That's still not going to stop us from making other necessary adjustments. Even with the pushback issue, UA dispel damage was too high.

I take it back. The pushback fix should now be live. You might need to log out for about 10 minutes to ensure it's picked up properly. It otherwise doesn't require a realm restart though.

Comments

Comment by Blagga

Shadowstep is instantly teleporting players behind their target when the target is in motion.

Wait... isn't that what Shadowstep always does, or was it doing something particularly weird?

Comment by Kanariya

on Wed, 04 May 2011 23:41:07 -0500

UA is supposed to hit hard, you're not supposed to dispel it. Bah, I feel like Blizz will never do anything good for locks without nerfing it after. Back to the Shadow Priest for me.

Comment by Burzolog

on Wed, 04 May 2011 23:55:07 -0500

Shadowstep is instantly teleporting players behind their target when the target is in motion.

Wait... isn't that what Shadowstep always does, or was it doing something particularly weird?

I assume it must have been bugged somehow, but I don't know exactly how.

Comment by atomicwolf22

on Thu, 05 May 2011 00:23:55 -0500

Shadowstep is instantly teleporting players behind their target when the target is in motion.

Wait... isn't that what Shadowstep always does, or was it doing something particularly weird?

I assume it must have been bugged somehow, but I don't know exactly how.

It was a little bugged. If your target that you SS moved with a Movement Spell or Ability then you were screwed and had to run them down. As you ported to were they were standing. Chasing Mages that Blinked really sucked.

Comment by TagraNar

on Thu, 05 May 2011 04:31:16 -0500

Oh, I am so glad they might use the other Amani Bear model. The green and brown one is definitely better than the purple.

Comment by Interest

on Thu, 05 May 2011 09:02:41 -0500

Spells or talents which provide pushback protection should now be functioning correctly (i.e. Burning Soul or Suppression). This time we mean it.

I hope so. Third time's the charm, right?

Comment by Azazel

on Thu, 05 May 2011 09:09:51 -0500

Anybody able to see where you can see the goodie-bag while in a dungeon?

Comment by OverZealous

on Thu, 05 May 2011 09:43:17 -0500

Spells or talents which provide pushback protection should now be functioning correctly (i.e. Burning Soul or Suppression). This time we mean it.

Am I the only one who want those abilties to keep functioning incorrectly, just for the lol?

Comment by Problimatic

on Thu, 05 May 2011 09:44:55 -0500

Anybody able to see where you can see the goodie-bag while in a dungeon?

Based on what it says up there I'd assume you hit the i key at the end of the dungeon and check if the satchel is still there (can't check atm as I'm not logged in)

1

Post a Comment

Please log in to add your comment, or register if you don't already have an account.